THOUSANDS of racegoers face a Grand National travel nightmare after rail officials forgot about the race.

Network Rail has scheduled engineering works for Saturday, April 14, the day the world’s eyes turn to Aintree for the most famous steeplechase on earth.

But racegoers face chaos because no trains will run from Manchester’s Piccadilly or Victoria stations or from Wigan into Liverpool Lime Street.

There is also a nightmare in store for Liverpool fans on the same day as they head for their game at Manchester City.

Aintree officials expect a record 80,000-plus crowd on the Saturday. But now thousands of racegoers will have to cram on to a fleet of buses that will ferry them to and from the city.

Train maintenance group Network Rail and train operator Northern Rail have known about the engineering work for 15 months, but failed to realise the potential for disruption, transport authority Merseytravel’s rail committee heard.